This has been hugely helpful to me too, but I still struggle sometimes to balance this kind of radical transparency with something I find especially engaging about RPGs: the delivery of surprise.

So, like, your ghost example? I have been that player. Not for that specific scene, mind you, but I’ve deliberately not reminded anybody at the table about what’s on my character sheet, or even in the rules, because I’m hoping that after I do the big reveal, everyone laughs or cheers or whatever. It’s not about outsmarting anybody in that case (at least I don’t think), but about subverting expectations in a way that releases tension.

By the same token, I’ve noticed it just doesn’t necessarily work every time, and the times that it doesn’t work, you leave people scratching their heads at why you didn’t just say what you meant from the start. Or worse, you leave your GM thinking you’re being smug and trying to outsmart them, which feels like an awkward mismatch in goals. I can’t claim to have figured out yet the pattern to differentiate “everybody’s gonna love this” situations from “nobody appreciates your secrecy” situations, and this bothers me.